There is a higher likelihood of petty racial abuse name calling &ndash and physical attack

There is a higher likelihood of petty racial abuse, name calling – and physical attack. And it is often compounded by Islamophobia.In Scotland, the Asian community is mainly from Pakistan. London has its race problems – but it is cosmopolitan and more at ease with its many cultures This doesn’t make Glaswegians more racist than Londoners. Such generalisations are crass and lead nowhere – but it does suggest that there is raw form of racism in less cosmopolitan areas of the UK where the communities are segregated and suspicious of each other These are the areas to which asylum-seekers have been sent. As the number “dispersed” to Glasgow has increased from 100 warmly welcomed Kosovan refugees two years ago to 5,000 this month, the city’s mask has slipped.

Parochial racism has hit the asylum-seekers on the Sighthill estate with full force.I hope that the murder on Sighthill will shake the complacency of the Scottish institutions on race. In a country with the oldest Asian community outside London, the Scottish Parliament is entirely white. Strenuous efforts are being made by some leading politicians to dilute the racist sentiments of Sighthill residents, but the harassment is simply a repetition of what has happened on a smaller scale in other dispersal areas of the UK.The Home Secretary has now announced a review into dispersal as a policy. As with the review into the discredited asylum voucher scheme, it has only come about through pressure. It is important that the Government understand how flawed the dispersal scheme has been since its inception.I know from personal experience that voluntary organisations and agencies on the ground can be highly committed to making dispersal work.

But, as a recent Rowntree report showed, concerns were voiced from the outset by the Refugee Council and the groups that represent asylum-seeker communities. These were that inadequate resourcing by government departments, lack of capacity in public services, and weak funding for community and other support groups – in short, dispersal on the cheap – would have serious consequences. That has now happened.Dispersed asylum-seekers were at risk of receiving poorer legal representation than if they had stayed in London and the South-east. Add to this the mental and physical health problems, language difficulties and racial abuse suffered by often well-qualified asylum-seekers with no work and nearly no income, and we are a million miles from the “fridges and hi-fi” jibes of Sighthill residents.So what is to be done? First, the Government must, following its year-long review of asylum vouchers, dismantle the discredited voucher scheme.

A single adult over 24 living in Sighthill will be getting £10 a week in cash to live on – and £14 in vouchers. Chronic problems with the scheme mean that it is highly likely that some of Sighthill’s asylum-seekers will have been weeks without vouchers, having to rely on Glasgow City Council for food. The way that vouchers humiliate asylum-seekers is well known. The stated aim was that they would deter illegal immigrants who come to the UK for our “generous benefits”.